Middle-earth: Shadow of War Officially Announced

And t's only six months away.

By
Joe Skrebels

Warner Bros. has officially announced Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the sequel to 2014's excellent Shadow of Mordor - it will be released on August 22 in North America and August 25 in Europe (Australia not confirmed at time of writing).

Following a retailer leak yesterday, the publisher has officially announced the game for PS4, Xbox One (including Project Scorpio), Steam, and Windows 10 (where it will be an Xbox Play anywhere title).

Developed by Monolith Productions - creators of Shadow of Mordor - the game will once again feature an original story in the Middle-earth universe, and will see the return of Talion and his ghostly companion Celebrimbor. Here's a trailer:

Yesterday's report about the game's story content has been proven correct. "Players wield a new Ring of Power and confront the deadliest of enemies," reads a press release, "including Sauron and his Nazgul, in a monumental battle for Middle-earth."

The game will also feature an expanded version of the Nemesis system. In Shadow of Mordor, the game dynamically created orcish officers that reacted to their encounters with Talion. In Shadow of War, Warner Bros. promises that the world's environment itself will also be shaped by your play, as well as a new kind of reactive NPC, Followers.

"Followers [...] bring about entirely new stories of loyalty, betrayal and revenge," says the press release. "The Nemesis System is also expanded to create a unique personal world through Nemesis Fortresses, which allows players to utilize different strategies to conquer dynamic strongholds and create personalized worlds with their unique Orc army."